Comments

1
The death of the GOP would be a disaster for America. As much as I hate the right wing wackos and billionaires, the left comes up with some pretty stupid shit, too.
2
It is so funny how angry and petulant Savage gets when the filthy hoi polloi refuse to line up and bow to the candidate his privileged, rich ass demands they all vote for.

Grow the fuck up and realize that people are allowed to disagree with you. Just because the status quo is really great for you personally does not mean everyone else has to ensure it keeps moving on unabated.
3
This whole thing is unfortunate. When one political party runs the country without any real opposition-- and the Democratic Party may be in such a position within 10 years-- there is a recipe for corruption. You see it in places like South Africa, where the ANC so often misgoverns but has well-earned support stemming from its founders having dismantled Apartheid. We need a good opposition party, but the Republican Party seems to be unable to function as anything but an outlet for various white and Christian national grievances.
4
after 8 years of obama, why aren't things better than they are for the white working class? because voters put the GOP back in charge of congress. why have things sucked for the white working class since 1980? because voters have repeatedly put the GOP in charge of the presidency, congress, and the supreme court.

white voters have reaped what they sowed, but sure, blame the black guy. now they've put a intellectually lazy, bona-fide malignant narcissist up for the hardest job on the planet. there is no party that has ever deserved death more.
5
@4: ok, the Nazi and Communist Parties deserved death more. but in AMERICA...
6
Yeah, general awfulness of the gop aside, the U.S. turning into a one party system is not what I'd call uplifting.
Matt Taibbi is on top of this: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/fea…
7
@6: let's give it a shot; it's worked for California.
8
@6: I'd be more excited about Democratic dominance, but I've quickly learned in the past two years just how prevalent anti-intellectualism and other pernicious forms of stupidity are on the left. Like #1 said.
9
Also America is not a liberal country. It's just not.
Trump is beating Clinton in some polls. Even if she wins and the gop implodes what does it say that we would be disenfranchising that many people? Just because they don't agree with you doesn't make it right.
If anything the dems would probably be dragged ever rightward and someone like (gasp) the greens would become the progressive party.
10
@9: it is a liberal country. many liberal policies are popular across the board. enhanced gun control laws, for instance.

American voters, however, are not liberal: they're older and whiter than the population.
11
@10: I disagree. That you think it's proof of liberalism that a majority don't want mentally ill people to have easy access to assault rifles just shows how skewed to the right the conversation is.
In places that are not Seattle people of many color are against immigration abortion and gay rights. People across all ages think Mike Brown got what he deserved. And NO ONE wants to pay the taxes it would take to have a European style safety net.
12
I agree with Mr Lash.
13
California thrived economically since we rode our last Republicans out on a rail -- we're now the six largest economy in the world, against five other fucking whole countries.

Yup, we got ourselves out of the Republican created recession by cheerfully agreeing to tax ourselves in one of the most diverse states in the union, where political correctness, EPA standards and gun control have helped create a relative nirvana, compared to the bankrupt shoot em up Red States.

I also remember the vibrant middle class of the 1950s and 1960s when the Democrats were at the helm in this country, and minority Republicans had to be moderate to be allowed to play at all.

We're still taking advantage of the infrastructure Roosevelt built in the 1930s, which 40 years of Republicans gone wild have allowed to rust.

Social Security, Medicare, the Civil Rights Act, Lily Ledbetter, Obamacare: all lead by Democrats with Republicans along for the ride, if they played nice.

It may not have been heaven for the decades Democrats were in charge, but it wasn't the hell created by Republicans.

14
@1 and @2 - If the GOP were to utterly collapse and die out, they would be replaced just as the Whigs were replaced in the mid-1800s. Just as Duverger's Law suggests that our plurality, first-past-the-post system prevents third party candidates from achieving success outside of multi-option races (like some city council and school board races where the top five winners get elected), it also will create a vaccuum if the opposition party completely collapses, it will be reformed.

Let's hope if it does the anti-science elements are jettisoned and it becomes more like the GOP of Eisenhower's era, a party that had genuine differences with the Democrats but could hold rationale debates on matters of public policy.

My personal preference would be to replace our first-past-the-post voting with Instant Runoff Voting (IRV, also known as Ranked Choice Voting), which we have for local elections in San Francisco. That actually would allow for the genuine viability of third party candidates because people could put Jill Stein first on their ballots and Hillary Clinton second, should Stein not achieve enough votes. But because elections are handled by the states, it couldn't be imposed by Congress without a Constitutional Amendment.

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